County profile · official public datasets

Rappahannock County, VA

87 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 37.9% rated Good, 56.3% Fair, 5.7% Poor.

87
Public bridges: 37.9%
Good condition: 5.7%
Poor condition

The verdict

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.

Rappahannock County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with an older average build year than the state inventory.

92nd
of 129 on Poor share: 5.7%
Poor-condition share: 87
public highway bridges: 1960
avg year built

Poor is an FHWA condition category from the lowest applicable component rating (4 or below), not a live crossing-safety or closure decision. Rankings cover counties with at least five public highway bridges.

Rappahannock County Bridge Snapshot

According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Rappahannock County ranks #92 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 5.7%). Rappahannock County, Virginia contains 87 public highway bridges. Roughly 37.9% are rated “Good,” 56.3% “Fair,” and 5.7% “Poor.” Poor means the lowest applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert rating is 4 or below on the 0–9 NBI scale. It is a condition category, not a live safety or closure decision.

Responsible agencies inspect covered bridges on risk-based intervals under current NBIS rules and submit inventory data to FHWA annually. The list below shows every NBI-tracked bridge in the county. Use the “Sort by” controls to change the ordering, and click any row for its reported inspection date, traffic count, and condition fields.

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory. See methodology for full definitions.

Total bridges

Public highway bridges in Rappahannock County

Good condition

37.9%

33 of 87 rated 7-9

Fair condition

56.3%

49 of 87 rated 5-6

Poor condition

5.7%

5 of 87 rated 4 or below

In-state Poor-share rank

#92 of 129

Among Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better

Condition distribution

Share of 87 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.

Good

37.9% (33)

Fair

56.3% (49)

Poor

5.7% (5)

Rappahannock County's Poor-condition bridges carry 478 vehicle crossings a day

That is 0.6% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 5.7% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 96 crossings a day against 600 for a Good-condition one. A Poor rating is a condition category, not a closure or a live safety judgement; it means the lowest applicable component rating is 4 or below.

Computed over the 87 of 87 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

74.7% of Rappahannock County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

65 of the 87 bridges with a recorded construction year were built in 1974 or earlier. Age alone is not a defect: a well-maintained older bridge can rate Good, and 37.9% of this county's inventory does. Even so, this older cohort is the population from which future Poor ratings are drawn, which is why the age profile below matters alongside the condition split above.

Cutoff derives from the 2024 release year minus a 50-year design life. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

One structure carries 46.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

Reva Road over Hughes River, built 1930, carries 223 vehicles a day, the most of any Poor-rated structure here. The county's Poor-condition exposure is concentrated rather than evenly spread, so the 5-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.

Share is of the 478 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

1910s

2
1920s

4
1930s

17
1940s

5
1950s

13
1960s

16
1970s

12
1980s

4
1990s

10
2000s

2
2010s

2

What this shows Construction peaked in the 1930s, when 17 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 19.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 85 to 94 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1960, 14 years older than the Virginia average of 1974.

How Rappahannock County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size

The 5 Virginia counties nearest Rappahannock County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 5.7% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1960 against a peer-group mean of 1973 is 13 years older.

Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.

Bridge inventory size and condition shares for Rappahannock County and the 5 Virginia counties closest to it in inventory size
County	Bridges	Good	Fair	Poor	Avg. built
Greensville County	92	21.7%	76.1%	2.2%	1966
Lunenburg County	88	33%	52.3%	14.8%	1969
Roanoke city County	88	39.8%	59.1%	1.1%	1972
Goochland County	87	13.8%	85.1%	1.1%	1981
Rappahannock County (this page)	87	37.9%	56.3%	5.7%	1960
Prince Edward County	82	42.7%	51.2%	6.1%	1978

Each share is of that county's own total tracked bridges; peers are the counties with 5 or more bridges whose inventory size is closest to Rappahannock County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Two NBI-derived peer sets for Rappahannock County, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.

Similar inventory size

Nearest county inventories outside VA (87 bridges here).

Modoc County, CA · 87 bridges
Hendry County, FL · 87 bridges
Adams County, ID · 87 bridges
Humboldt County, IA · 87 bridges

Similar average build year

Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1960 here).

Windham County, VT · avg 1960 · 337 bridges
Plymouth County, MA · avg 1960 · 287 bridges
Cheshire County, NH · avg 1960 · 192 bridges
Washington County, NY · avg 1960 · 189 bridges

Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.

All 87 Good 33 Fair 49 Poor 5

Good-condition bridges (33)

Sort:

Rappahannock County Bridge Snapshot

Condition distribution

Rappahannock County's Poor-condition bridges carry 478 vehicle crossings a day

74.7% of Rappahannock County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark

One structure carries 46.7% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic

How Rappahannock County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size

Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year

Similar inventory size

Similar average build year

Good-condition bridges (33)

Green Road

Laurel Mills Road

Richmond Road

Bean Hollow Road

Richmond Road

Jericho Road

Sperryville Pike

Major Brown Drive

Rudasill Mill Road

Ben Venue Road

Rock Mills Road

Sharp Rock Road

Woodward Road

Zachary Taylor Hwy

Old Hollow Road

Turkey Ridge Road

Sperryville Pike

Keyser Run Road

Harris Hollow Road

Fodderstack Road

Resettlement Road

Dodson Road

Short Road

Slate Mills Road

Old Hollow Road

Dearing Road

Viewtown Road

GidBrownHollowRoad

Tiger Valley Road

Rock Mills Road

Lee Highway WBL

Harris Hollow Road

Bean Hollow Road

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